Hartmut, I like it. A little like T.H. White, a little like Cynthia McQuillin.
For some reason, the biggest seller I have had so far among my short stories is "The Men Who Saved JFK" (possibly it's the keywords):
"Fred Hatch had decided while still a small boy that he needed to be the man who discovered time travel. He needed to have time travel, in order to go back to November 22nd, 1963, and save President Kennedy from assassination. And he needed to be the one who discovered time travel because he couldn’t trust anyone but himself with such an awesome power.
"Hatch worked hard to become a time traveller. In high school, he studied math and physics, but also took shop classes, because he wanted to be able to make any special parts the time machine might need. He studied history, of course, and worked out various turning points where he thought he could improve matters by intervening. He took drama classes, so he could learn to blend in with the crowd in different time periods. He got into shape, learned to shoot, learned to drive. He paid one of the school’s bad boys to teach him how to pick locks and hotwire cars, and regretted paying so much money to learn such simple tricks.
"He joined the Marines out of high school, partly in order to fund his education and partly because he was a sincere and passionate patriot. That was why he wanted to save JFK, and do all the other things he had in mind to do...."

I would go and download immeejitly if I had already straightened out some difficulties with major Internet entities regarding cash payments, but I haven't yet.
Meantime, if you'd like to read one of MY stories, contact me and I'll be happy to share with you. Maybe you'd like to read my novel, The Christmas Mutiny.

hoisted by liberal japonicus If you enjoyed The Christmas Rats story by our own 'Jill Kearney', you will want to download the rest of the book for you Kindle. The title is The Dog Thief and Other Stories. It’s available as a Kindle download. [ed. note $0.99, a steal!!] The author says: The autho...

by Doctor Science Yesterday's birding walk was good, but nothing unusual in the way of bird life. What made it one for the record books was the single cutest thing I've ever seen in nature: four Red Fox kits playing together. They must have been out of the den for a couple of weeks because they'r...

"The NRA isn’t for hunters any more than AAA is for bicyclists."
Perhaps better to say, "than Toyota is for bicyclists".
About "baiting": I once saw a picture of a sign on a tree which read,
"BAITING DEER IS STRICTLY ILLEGAL
CORN PLACED HERE IS FOR SQUIRRELS ONLY
ANY DEER EATING THIS CORN WILL BE SHOT!"
I swiped the photo and turned it into one of those (de)motivational posters, with the caption, "If the Department of Fish and Wildlife were run like the SEC".

by Doctor Science Last week (more or less) included my husband's birthday, and for his celebratory dinner I made Juniper-Spiced Venison with Brown Goat Cheese Sauce[1]. The crowd went *wild* -- it may have been the best venison any of us have ever had [2], and it was certainly the tenderest wild-...

Radio talk show host Glenn Beck criticized an American Airlines flight attendant on his show on Tuesday morning, saying the flight attendant made him feel "subhuman." Beck had been returning from a Labor Day weekend trip to New York and flew American back to Dallas/Fort Worth airport. On his fli...

"[I]f only the victim had been armed, this whole unfortunate incident would have been avoided."
Sure, because then the cops would simply have said, "Well, he was armed", and that would be the end of it.

So Trayvon Martin got shot. Why did he get shot? Racism. Why did his killing get covered up? Racism. It's actually not much of a mystery. Unless you're a right wing blogger! In that case... Clearly the lesson we need to take from this tragedy is that Barack Obama is a racist. I shit you not. Ric...

What to teach the kids:
* Much of what we call "Christmas" traditions have nothing to do with Christianity. Non-Christians should feel free to put up a Yule tree, make egg nog, &c.
* For that matter, Jesus does not belong exclusively to Christians. Anyone should feel free to celebrate the birth and life of a child born under very unprepossessing circumstances, ignored by the rich and powerful, his birth noted only by certain extremely ordinary working class people, and some scholars from a foreign university town.

by liberal japonicus When you read the title, you should be hearing a bunch of louche pop stars sing-shouting out of tune. "Let them know it's Christmastime'. After you have finished muttering imprecations about me putting that song in your head, read on. The 'let them know it's Christmastime' i...

David Frum tentatively stakes out a position as a Republican who is not insane. But this: If the leadership of the left consisted of people of moderate views, sound judgment, even temper, and good will, unilateral disarmament of the sort David seems to contemplate might make sense. But the righ...

Anti-Semites like to claim that Washington,Franklin and others were anti-Semites. Hey, all they have to do is make up some phoney quotes and there you are.
The poor schnooks would also like to idolize the Confederate treason -- except for that inconvenient Judah P. Benjamin....

What Mr. Thunder does not show you in these pictures of OWS demonstrators is that they are all totally Hitler. Hitler Hitler Hitler. Oh, and Hitler. You know, Hitler? HIT-LER. It has been pointed out by many media commentators that the openly anti-Semitic remain but a small portion of those part...

As I look back on parenthood from the perspective of one whose youngest has just recently married, I find that the failures I regret most are those times when I squelched a child's exuberance by, for instance, telling him that his repeated use of the word "disturbing" was not disturbing at all, merely boring.
I apologized to him recently. I'm glad I did that.

So, earlier this evening, I was bringing all the kids home from swim lessons/family swim time, and we got home, and it was pork chops for dinner, and as it happened, with one thing and another, I forgot to buy the applesauce. When this abominable lapse on my part was discovered, I got the stinke...

Random Fact! The state of Maryland narrows to less than two miles wide in the Hancock area—the smallest non-vertex border-to-border distance of any U.S. state. It is at the junction of Interstates 68 and 70. The Familiar Bluet and Hagen’s Bluet are so close in appearance, if they haven't b...

My stars! In other words, a no-details, tax-the-rich “plan” gussied up with cute little name. A bit of political salesmanship, you say? Recall this line from President Obama’s jobs address to Congress: “This isn’t political grandstanding. This isn’t class warfare. This is simple math.” Pay your ...

I'm reminded of the famous reply to a bad review, "I write to you seated in the smallest room in my house, a copy of yoru review before me. Shortly, it will be behind me."
But at least he didn't post a video on YouTube.

I worked on The Times letters page in the days when email was new(ish), and we had a choice of stock replies that used to be sent out to the hundreds of readers' letters that still came into the office every day - the ones there wasn't room to publish, that is: "Thank you for writing ... Your co...

Thanks, BTW, for mentioning the dysfunctional relationship between urban populations and the police. Too many people fail to notice this "army of occupation" mentality, or worse yet take it for granted.
-- Dr. Psycho

by Eric Martin Adam Serwer makes an excellent point in response to Jay Nordlinger's high praise for the underpants bomber's father, Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, who had the strength of character to report his son's activities to U.S. authorities despite the possible legal repercussions for his son. N...